Regnet tvang oss til å vente.

In this sentence, regnet is the definite form of regn (rain), so literally it is the rain.

Norwegian often uses the definite form in cases where English might just say rain in a more general way. So Regnet tvang oss til å vente is structurally The rain forced us to wait.

• regn = rain
• regnet = the rain

Here, regnet is the subject of the sentence.

Tvang is the past tense of tvinge, which means to force.

So:

• å tvinge = to force
• tvang = forced

This verb is irregular, so the past tense does not look like a simple ending added to the infinitive.

A few useful forms are:

• å tvinge = to force
• tvinger = forces / is forcing
• tvang = forced
• har tvunget = has/have forced

Because oss is the object form of we.

Compare:

• vi = we
• oss = us

In this sentence, the rain is doing the action, and us is receiving the action:

• Regnet = the subject
• tvang = the verb
• oss = the object

So Norwegian works like English here:

• The rain forced us
• not The rain forced we

After tvinge, Norwegian normally uses the pattern:

tvinge noen til å + infinitive

That means:

force someone to do something

So:

• tvinge oss til å vente = force us to wait
• tvinge ham til å gå = force him to go
• tvinge dem til å bli = force them to stay

The til å is part of the standard construction with this verb.

Å is the infinitive marker, similar to English to before a verb.

So:

• å vente = to wait
• å gå = to go
• å spise = to eat

In til å vente, the å vente part is the infinitive phrase to wait.

Not exactly in a simple word-for-word sense. In this sentence, til is part of the fixed pattern tvinge noen til å gjøre noe.

So although til often means things like to, for, or until depending on context, here it is best learned as part of the whole construction:

• tvinge noen til å ...

Trying to translate each word separately can be less helpful than learning the full pattern.

The sentence follows normal Norwegian main-clause word order:

Subject + Verb + Object + Infinitive phrase

So:

• Regnet = subject
• tvang = finite verb
• oss = object
• til å vente = complement showing what we were forced to do

This is very similar to English word order:

The rain forced us to wait.

Normally, no. Regn by itself would sound unnatural here.

For this kind of sentence, Norwegian prefers regnet when talking about the rain as the thing causing the problem at that moment or in that situation.

So the natural version is:

• Regnet tvang oss til å vente.

Sometimes, yes. Vente can be used on its own, but if you say what someone is waiting for, Norwegian often uses på.

Examples:

• Vi ventet. = We waited.
• Vi ventet på bussen. = We waited for the bus.

In your sentence, there is no need to say what was being waited for. The point is simply that the rain forced us to wait.

Yes. A common alternative would be:

Regnet fikk oss til å vente.

This is closer to The rain made us wait.

The difference is roughly:

• tvang oss til å vente = forced us to wait
• fikk oss til å vente = made us wait

Tvang sounds stronger than fikk.

Yes. The pattern is very common:

[something/someone] + tvang + [someone] + til å + [verb]

For example:

• Vinden tvang dem til å snu. = The wind forced them to turn back.
• Sykdommen tvang ham til å slutte å jobbe. = The illness forced him to stop working.
• Situasjonen tvang oss til å velge raskt. = The situation forced us to choose quickly.

So your sentence is a very useful model to learn from.